Top 09

14 of its members sit in the Chamber of Deputies, and three of them are MEPs.

TOP 09
Leader	Markéta Pekarová Adamová
Deputy Leaders	Vlastimil Válek Tomáš Czernin Matěj Ondřej Havel Michal Kučera Martina Ochodnická
Chamber of Deputies Leader	Jan Jakob
MEP Leader	Luděk Niedermayer
Founders	Miroslav Kalousek Karel Schwarzenberg
Founded	11 June 2009; 14 years ago (2009-06-11)
Split from	KDU–ČSL
Headquarters	Opletalova 1603/57, Prague
Think tank	TOPAZ
Youth wing	TOP Team
Membership (2021)	2,481
Ideology	Liberal conservatism Christian democracy Liberalism
Political position	Centre-right
National affiliation	SPOLU
European affiliation	European People's Party
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
European Parliament group	European People's Party
Colours	(customary)
Chamber of Deputies	14 / 200
Senate	6 / 81
European Parliament	2 / 21
Regional councils	20 / 675
Governors of the regions	0 / 13
Local councils	483 / 61,892
Website
www.top09.cz
Politics of the Czech Republic Political parties Elections

Foundation and participation in government

The party was founded on 11 June 2009 by Miroslav Kalousek who left the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. Its first leader was Karel Schwarzenberg, who had previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Topolánek cabinet from January 2007 to March 2009, having been nominated by the Green Party for the post, and who had been elected to the Senate in 2004 as nominee of the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) and Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) parties.

 

In the 2010 parliament elections on 28–29 May 2010, TOP 09 received 16.7% of the vote and 41 seats, becoming the third largest party. The party joined the Nečas cabinet, forming a coalition with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and Public Affairs (VV).

In September 2010 TOP 09 applied to join the European People's Party. Karel Schwarzenberg had already officially participated in two EPP summits (15 September and 16 December 2010). On 10 February 2011 TOP 09 was granted permission to join the EPP.

In the 2013 legislative election on 25–26 October 2013, TOP 09 won 12% of the vote and 26 seats. The party became part of the parliamentary opposition to the Sobotka cabinet.

Opposition and cooperation with STAN and ODS

In the 2014 European elections on 24 and 25 May 2014, TOP 09 reached second place nationally with 15.95% of the vote, electing 4 MEPs.

Karel Schwarzenberg left the position of leader in 2015. He was replaced by Miroslav Kalousek afterwards.

In March 2016, Karel Tureček left the party and joined ANO 2011, which left TOP 09 with 25 MPs. In May 2016, Pavol Lukša, one of founders of TOP 09, left the party and established a new party, Good Choice.

The 2016 Czech regional elections were a major loss for TOP 09. The party gained only 19 seats and 3.4% of the vote. Miroslav Kalousek then considered resigning, but decided to remain the party’s leader.

In January 2017, TOP 09 introduced a new program called Vision 2030, in which it declared intentions to adopt the Euro, implement electronical voting, and increase health standards in Czechia to Germany's level. TOP 09 also wanted to shorten the working week to 4 days. Miroslav Kalousek said he believed that TOP 09 would get over 10% in the upcoming legislative election even though recent opinion polls indicated that TOP 09 might not reach the 5% threshold.

Ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections, TOP 09 was endorsed by The Czech Crown, Conservative Party, Club of Committed Non-Party Members and Liberal-Environmental Party. The party eventually received 5.3% of the vote, gaining 7 seats. Jiří Pospíšil became the new leader after the election.

In the next year municipal elections TOP 09 got only 1.1 per cent of the vote nationally. The best performance for the party was in the Prague City council elections, following which it joined a coalition with the Czech Pirate Party and Prague Together.

In November, 2019, Markéta Pekarová Adamová was elected party’s leader. In late 2020, TOP 09 formed an electoral alliance with KDU-ČSL and ODS called SPOLU, to run in the 2021 elections. The alliance won the popular vote and formed a coalition with the Pirates and Mayors alliance. As a result of agreements made to form these alliances, TOP 09 leader Markéta Pekarová Adamová became President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic.

On 20 November 2021 Pekarová Adamová was reelected in a TOP 09 leadership election, with 163 out of 176 votes, being the only candidate.

On 11 November 2023 Pekarová Adamová was reelected in a TOP 09 leadership election, with 142 out of 177 votes, being the only candidate.

TOP 09 is characterised most prominently by its fiscal conservatism and its pro-Europeanism, being firmly in favour of European integration. Generally, the party is considered to lean towards both liberal and conservative strains of right-of-centre thought, gradually becoming increasingly liberal compared to its official stance of conservatism.

Below are charts of the results that the TOP09 has secured in the Chamber of Deputies, Senate, European Parliament, and regional assemblies at each election.

 

Chamber of Deputies

Year	Leader	Vote	Vote %	Seats	+/−	Place	Position
2010	Karel Schwarzenberg	873,833	16.7	41 / 200		3rd	Coalition
2013	Karel Schwarzenberg	596,357	12.0	26 / 200	15	4th	Opposition
2017	Miroslav Kalousek	268,811	5.3	7 / 200	19	8th	Opposition
2021	Markéta Pekarová Adamová	1,493,701	27.79	14 / 200	7	1st	Coalition
	Part of SPOLU coalition, which won 71 seats in total

 

Senate

Election	First round			Second round			Seats	Total seats	+/-
	Votes	%	Places	Votes	%	Places
2010	165,277	14.40	3rd	51,310	7.54	3rd	2 / 27	2 / 81	2
20111	2,053	7.51	4th				0 / 1	2 / 81
2012	57,907	6.59	5th	9,918	1.93	5th	2 / 27	4 / 81	2
2014	92,137	8.98	5th	30,476	6.43	6th	0 / 27	4 / 81
20142	2,055	15.55	3rd				0 / 1	4 / 81
2016	70,653	8.02	6th	30,820	7.27	5th	2 / 27	4 / 81
20183	7,615	33.51	1st	30,331	67.11	1st	1 / 1	4 / 81
2018	41,980	3.85	7th	22,580	5.40	8th	1 / 27	3 / 81	1
2020	46,575	4.67	7th	33,938	7.51	4th	2 / 27	5 / 81	2

Notes:
¹ By-election in Kladno district.
² By-election in Prague 10 district
³ By-election in Trutnov district. TOP 09 supported a STAN candidate Jan Sobotka.

Presidential